Gets a pooch to attack / TUE 6-2-26 / Word after video or Scotch / Fusion weapon, familiarly / Hindi term meaning master or mister / Original name of a popular shared-ride service / Chris with the 1991 hit "Wicked Game" / Wash with a glycol spray, as an airplane / Silver weapon brandished by one hoping for gold / Sea sight in black and white / Rock that's fracked to release oil

Constructor: Rich Katz

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "2, 4, 6, 8..." — first words of four themers are all homophones of the numbers in the chant familiar from the end of youth sports matches: "2, 4, 6, 8 ["TOO, FOR, SICS, ATE"], WHO DO WE / APPRECIATE! [The other team], [The other team], hurray!" (56A: With 63-Across, question hinted at by the beginnings of 17-, 21-, 25- and 48-Across)

Theme answers:

• TOO LATE NOW (17A: "You missed your chance!")
• FOR REAL (21A: "It's legit!")
• SICS THE DOG ON (25A: Gets a pooch to attack)
• ATE LIKE A BIRD (48A: Picked at one's food, in an avian metaphor)

Word of the Day: Chris ISAAK (53D: Chris with the 1991 hit "Wicked Game") —

Christopher Joseph Isaak (born June 26, 1956) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional actor. Noted for his reverb-laden rockabilly revivalist style and wide vocal range, he is widely known for his breakthrough hit and signature song "Wicked Game" as well as international hits "Blue Hotel", "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing", and "Somebody's Crying".

With a career spanning four decades, Isaak has released 13 studio albums, toured extensively with his band Silvertone, and received numerous award nominations. His sound and image are often compared to those of Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, and Duane Eddy.

Isaak has associated with film director David Lynch, who has used his music in numerous films. As an actor, he played supporting roles and bit parts in films such as Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs, Little Buddha, That Thing You Do! and Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and starred in two television series: the sitcom The Chris Isaak Show and the talk show The Chris Isaak Hour. (wikipedia)

• • •

It should be WHOM.*

Do teams still do "2, 4, 6, 8"!? Are people from other countries familiar with this chant? I haven't thought about it since grade school—very familiar, but not something I've heard in a long time. I don't know of any context for it besides youth sports. I'm not sure it makes for much a crossword theme. It's vaguely interesting that there are ordinary-word homophones for each of the first four even numbers (not true for the odds, except 1), but the operative word here is "ordinary," and these phrases are either not very interesting (FOR REAL) or exceedingly contrived. Thematically, this one lost me completely at SICS THE DOG ON, both because the phrase is long and clunky and doesn't sound great as a standalone answer, and because it's so grim. No using dogs for violence. Gross. And that clue ... [Gets a pooch to attack]!? You don't get to use a term of endearment ("pooch") if this is how you use your dog. You've lost the privilege! No "doggo" or "buddy" or "pupper" either. SICS is a desperate homophone. I guess it's the only word you can use if you want to pull off this theme, but ... maybe that's a sign. An OMEN. That the theme isn't worth it. SICS THE DOG ON also crosses a mess of the worst fill, stuff like REWOVE (?) and UBER POOL (ugh, how many various UBER product names can the puzzle possibly shill for? It's like it finds a new one every month) (10D: Original name of a popular shared-ride service), and then a mess or crosswordese like NYET HBOMB and ANAIS. An SAHIB is right there as well—all stuff that people used to cram into puzzles seemingly every day when I was starting out, but which as (thankfully!) faded from view somewhat in the intervening decades. EMEND EKED ISAAK OWLETS EPEE EPPS ... the overfamiliar stuff keeps coming. And it's all point-and-shoot easy. No real trickery or cleverness anywhere, beyond the theme. A tidal wave of 3-4-5s. No real high points. Felt like a filler puzzle from days of yore.

The clues are kind of trying to liven things up. There are four "?" clues, but three of them aren't much trouble at all (the clues on UMP, NYET, OWLETS). Only the fourth made me go "huh?" ... and not in a good way. I truly do not understand how my HEEL helps me get my leg up. Your hip flexors and quads are largely responsible for lifting your leg. Is the idea that you're pushing off with your HEEL to ... what, climb stairs? That's not how people climb stairs? I'm at a loss. Maybe you're doing squats and driving through your HEEL? I do not understand what the clue means by "up" here. "Get a leg up" is a familiar idiomatic phrase, yes, but the "?" here indicates that there's a play on words here, presumably that the idiom is meant to be taken literally, but as I say, I'm at a loss as to how this works (someone in the comments suggested that HEEL refers to part of a shoe—huh, OK). One other question, which may be more of a comment: why is "avian" necessary in the ATE LIKE A BIRD clue? (48A: Picked at one's food, in an avian metaphor). I see how it makes the clue a lot easier, but it's totally unnecessary. The metaphor is well known; you don't have to shout "the one with the bird in it!" Trust solvers to figure out simple things like this. It's insulting otherwise.

Bullets:

• 42A: Part of a shoe or many a bra (LACE) — Me: "STRAP! It's STRAP! ... why won't STRAP fit!? It's obviously STRAP. STRAP, I say!" This is the one clue that seems to at least be trying for trickiness, in that the "LACE" is different in these two contexts (i.e. a shoe LACE is a very different thing from the LACE on a bra). I don't understand why it's "a shoe" but "many a bra." True, not all bras have LACE, but then not all shoes have LACEs either, so ... ??? "Many a" should apply to both or neither.
• 52A: Wash with a glycol spray, as an airplane (DEICE) — unlike with "avian" in the ATE LIKE A BIRD clue, I appreciated the extra help here ("as an airplane"), as I could not have told you what "glycol spray" was. 
• 49D: Emirate that was the site of Operation Desert Storm (KUWAIT) — like siccing dogs on people, Operation Desert Storm is something I'm fine never seeing mentioned again in my crossword. You've already got H-BOMB in here (29D: Fusion weapon, familiarly), isn't that enough militarism?
• 53D: Chris with the 1991 hit "Wicked Game" (ISAAK) — he really had a moment in the early '90s. I have no idea how well known he is any more ... outside of crosswords, that is, where his name is occasionally very handy (double-A!) and not to be confused with ISAAC or IZAAK (as in IZAAK Walton, who is real, old-school crosswordese; I don't think I'd know him or the work he wrote (The Compleat Angler) without crosswords ... although he did write a bio of Donne, but I know that only because I teach Donne, which most people ... don't). Coincidentally, I encountered Chris ISAAK just yesterday, as we watched David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) just last night, and ISAAK has a pretty large role as an FBI detective early in that movie (alongside Kiefer Sutherland, who I forgot was even in the movie). 

• 28D: Bone in the lower leg (TIBIA) — lots of leg anatomy in the puzzle today. Your shin bone (TIBIA) is not connected to your HEEL bone, but it gets pretty close.

That's it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*No, I'm not serious. Grammatically correct, but not serious.  

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